The present invention relates generally to collaborative work systems and more particularly relates to a system for collaborative document annotation based on the exchange of notes attached to web based documents, the system being suitable for use over a network such as the Internet based World Wide Web (WWW).
A basic function of World Wide Web browsers in common use today, such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, is to allow web pages stored in remote Web server to be retrieved and viewed. The user initiates a viewing session on a web browser by specifying a particular URL corresponding to a page to be viewed. The web server transmit the various elements of the requested page to the browsing application. Any special data formats, e.g., video, certain images, documents not written in HTML language, etc., are treated by one or more web browser software plug-ins on the client computer.
A common need is to be able to view the document, i.e., images, etc., on the client computer and be able to add one or more annotations to the document. It is becoming more and more common for groups of two or more people to work collaboratively on a project. The members of the group may or may not be located in the same geographic area. The collaboration is often via a network such as the global Internet. The members of the group may be located anywhere in the world as long they have a connection to the Internet.
The ability to annotate documents displayed on screen is very useful when information needs to be exchanged among more than one person. It would be beneficial if one persons""s comments could be shared among many others by attaching notes that travel with the underlying document being worked on.
Currently, however, it is not possible to annotate documents on the client side such that other clients can see the notes. The entire document with the attached notes must be transmitted to other clients for them to see the notes. Transmitting the entire document from client to client through the server in order to exchange annotation is burdensome, inefficient and costly in terms of time and bandwidth.
The majority of prior art systems that with image and page annotation are adapted to handle annotation only on the client side. In these systems, a user launches an editing tool to open a document locally on her/his computer. The document is edited locally with the other clients not being able to easily view the changes or notes. Some of these editing tools permit attaching data information such as annotations to the document. These systems operate by saving the annotations within the local file system that is also used to store the document.
Also known in the prior art are systems that permit collaboration that is based on the replication of the display at one client system to the display on another client system. These systems, however, require that all parties to the collaboration session be logged on to the server at the same time in order to view the annotations made by one or more of the parties.
Thus, there is strong felt need for a system that would allow multipartly collaboration based on the asynchronous exchange of annotations over a network such as the Internet without the requirement that all parties wishing to collaborate be simultaneously logged on to a server.
The present invention is a system for collaborative document annotation whereby notes or annotations associated with a document, such as an image or text document, are stored on a web server. The documents and associated annotations are treated independently from each other. Separate data structures are created for the documents and for the associated annotations thus permitting their independent management.
The invention can be implemented as software, a portion of which executes on the server side and a portion that executes on the client side. The server side may comprise a plurality of software applications running in parallel that in combination provide the server functionality of the invention. A web server application on the server side functions to capture special requests from one or more client applications for creating, storing, editing and retrieving, annotations related to specific documents located in the server. A notes server functions to log all annotation activities along with information about the corresponding clients that create, edit and retrieve them.
The notes information are transmitted between client and server applications via TCP/IP protocols over communications means such as a LAN, WAN or the Internet. The invention may be adapted to operate over an Intranet, e.g., LAN, or Extranet, e.g., WAN or the Internet.
On the client side a client software application functions to display the document that the user wishes to annotate and provides the tools necessary to permit the user to create, edit, retrieve and store notes. Note that the client software application can be implemented as a web browser plug-in module. The plug-in contains the user interface for navigating within the document and for handling the notes.
A synchronization button is provided which, when pressed by the user, transmits the annotations generated by the user from the client to the server using a particular protocol. In response, the server transmits back an acknowledgement along with any new notes that other clients may have posted since the last synchronization was performed.
A user may annotate many documents at the same time by opening several web browser windows. In addition, other clients can annotate either the same document or other documents at the same or a later time. In accordance with the invention, the annotations are transmitted from the server independent of the data transmitted that is related to the viewed document. At the client side, the client application layers the annotations over the image (or document) in accordance with the coordinates of each.
As a result, the present invention has the advantage of permitting multiple clients to annotate a document that resides on a central web server in an asynchronous fashion. When annotations are posted to the server by a client, the state of the annotation database is synchronized such that all other clients can retrieve the current, up to date annotations associated with a document. As an option, the server can be adapted to trigger one or more alarms in response to a change being made to the database maintained by the server. Those clients that wish to be notified in the event of a database change at the server, can be notified by means of visual indications, audio and/or e-mail. In addition, the alarms can filtered in numerous ways. Examples of filtering include, but are not limited to, specific documents, document types, document folders, annotation contents and specific clients.
The system of the present invention further allows annotations to be kept private. Annotations can be kept secure from changes made by non authorized clients. The time an annotation was created is also tracked and stored in terms of the clock in the server. When the time stamp of the annotation is shown on the client, it is shown in terms of the clock on the client.
There is provided in accordance with the present invention a system for annotating documents comprising a document file located on a server, the document file for storing one or more documents, a notes database located on the server, the notes database for storing one or more notes, each note associated with a particular document, one or more notes clients coupled to a network, each notes client operative to locally display a representation of a document remotely stored on the server in the document file, the notes client adapted to permit a user to annotate the document with one or more notes, the notes client operative to simultaneously display the one or more notes associated with the document over the displayed document such that the document is viewable along with the one or more notes, a notes server coupled to the network, the notes server operative to store the documents in the document file separately from notes stored in the notes database, the notes server receiving one or more notes associated with a particular document from the one or more notes clients and synchronization means within the notes clients and the notes server, the synchronization means for updating the notes server with any notes events processed by the notes clients and for updating the notes client with the results of synchronization updates previously performed by other notes clients since the last synchronization event.
The notes database comprises a Notes Table for storing the current content of a note and a Notes Log Table for storing a transaction history of all not events for notes associated with a particular document. The notes client comprises a display, network communication means, a processor suitably programmed to run a web browser and a client note plug-in adapted to run within the web browser.
The network comprises the Internet, a TCP/IP network or an Intranet. The notes server comprises network communication means, a processor suitably programmed to provide a web server services, provide notes agent services, provide document and notes browsing and synchronization services to the one or more notes clients. The notes agent services comprises an Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI).
The system further comprises a notes administrator for providing one or more Universal Resource Locations (URL) aliases in managing and adminstrating the notes server and a note viewer for generating reports on the history of annotation on a per user or a per document basis that have occurred over a period of time.
The system permits two or more user to collaboratively work on the same document whereby each user is capable of viewing annotations made by the other users upon synchronization with the notes server. A single page of a multipage document can be annotated on a notes client without requiring the entire multipage document to be transmitted to the notes client.
The system further comprises security means for providing Universal Resource Locator (URL) translation and redirection services so as to provide user level security for documents and notes stored on the server. The security means comprises a Document Location Table and a Client Access Key Table.
The document comprises an image or a document consisting of a page description language. The notes client is adapted to permit the user to annotate the document in parallel with the display of the document. The document comprises a plurality of pages whereby each page can be annotated independently of all the other pages. The synchronization means is user initiated or is triggered by the notes via the signaling of selected notes clients.
There is also provided in accordance with the present invention method of annotating documents, the method comprising the steps of getting a first request comprising a Universal Resource Locator (URL) associated with a document to be viewed and annotated and transmitting the first request from a client to a server, sending a first response from the server in response to the first request, the first response comprising the document type of and a representative of the requested document, getting a second request comprising a document note URL corresponding to the notes associated with the document and sending the second request from the client to the server, sending a second response from the server in response to the second request, the second response comprising one or more notes associated with the document, displaying the representation of the document and the associated one or more notes locally on the client such that both are viewable simultaneously, permitting the user to perform annotation functions on the client so as to generate a third request comprising one or more note events related to the document that are transmitted from the client to the server and sending a third response from the server to the client in response to the third request, the third response comprising an updated list of notes associated with the document, the list of notes incorporating any note events previously received from other clients.
The step of getting a first request comprises the step of querying the user for a user name and password. The step of sending a first response comprises the step of authenticating the user on the server before sending the first response. The method further comprises the step of getting a fourth request comprising a folder URL associated with the folder comprising one or more documents to be viewed and annotated and transmitting the fourth request from the client to the server.
The method further comprises the step of sending a fourth response from the server in response to receiving a request comprising a folder URL, the fourth response comprising a directory listing of the folder. The document comprises an image or a document represented using a page description language.